Holding
Concorde up proudly as a supreme example of Anglo-French achievement is in fact
a supreme example of human arrogance and folly, for it points us in the very opposite
direction in which – if we care about our children and coming
generations –we need to
be going.

While
I can understand people’s fascination with Concorde – its beauty and
technical achievement – , and the attachment of those who have devoted
so much of their lives to it, it is high time we also recognised it as
the embodiment of the non-sustainable attitudes and aspirations which
are leading us towards climatic and ecological disaster.

Technically
and aesthetically Concorde was a remarkable achievement – no doubt
about it.But we will only
be able to give the plane itself, and those responsible for building it,
an honourable place in history, if we now recognise and accept, and
begin changing the
mistaken values and aspirations upon which it’s development and
operation were based.